Jorge Sanabria ~ Colombia

Bucaramanga

Cultural Differences

There are many reasons people seek to live in another country. It could be because of the hardships of war or danger to their families; it could be for the chance to live free; or it could be, as in Jorge's case, for the chance to raise a family with his wife in her home-country.

Interestingly, one difference Jorge discussed was the passivity of people in conversations here. In Colombia, he says, people feel it neccesary to 'win' an argument, or even a conversation.

Another thing he mentioned was that where he was from, you could wake up in the morning and start playing music loudly until all hours, and this was more or less acceptable.

Colombia -

Colombia is the 4th largest country in South America and one of its most populous at 48 million. It's president is Juan Manuel Santos who came to office in 2010. Colombia is rich in natural resources and it's main exports are oil, gold, coffee and coal.

It is a mountainous country and has many beautiful lakes and waterfalls.

However, Colombia is made up primarily of the rich families from Spanish descent and the poor.

It's because there is so little chance for any growth in society or wealth that kidnapping, murder and drugs have become so prevalent there.

The United States government are close allies with them and have spent billions on the drug war there also, (though to little avail).

Canada has had full diplomatic relations with them since 1953 and has an embassy in Bogota.

Their has also been armed conflict in Colombia since the mid 1960's where casualties have reached around 218,000 since then. Its an internal conflict between the government, left wing paramilitary groups and guerilla fighters.

Bogota

Jorge Sanabria ~

Colombia

Hamilton

Major events since arrivial

Reasons for Immigration

When asked about any major events that may have happened

Jorge said buying a house in Hamilton was a big one for him, and travelling with his wife across the United States also.

Lastly he mentioned a trip back to Colombia he took to see his family again.

When asked about his reasons for immigrating to Canada, Jorge simply said 'love'.

He had met his wife while she was vacationing in Colombia, shortly after they decided to come live in Canada and raise their family together.

Jorge hopes to work in the marketing field, as he did back home.

Challenges ~ costs ~ bio

Jorge arrived in Canada by plane in October of 2010.

Some of his challenges in coming to Canada included leaving the company he worked for in Bogota and having to leave his family and hometown in Bucaramanga; Transportation was a struggle here initially also, learning the bus routes is hard for anyone and much more so if you only speak Spanish.

So language was the other real barrier. The only English Jorge knew coming here were the words 'hello' and 'thank you' and he also felt that writing english was very difficult.

Acquiring his Visa and all the appropriate paperwork and neccesities in order to come here took him around 4 months to complete and cost 2500 dollars.